In the online freelancing world nothing is as good as a freelancer finding a client that they enjoy working with. And if the client likes the freelancer in return, that is even better.
If you are on Niabusiness looking for someone to outsource work to, read on for some tips you can use to find a freelancer you can work with again and again.
The advantages of working with the same freelancers
Contents
You focus more on the work and results, not hiring. So, the time that could have been spent vetting and onboarding new people gets spent on quickly bringing new projects to completion.
The freelancer can work with you in multiple projects to the point where you become more comfortable letting them lead other people you hire, freeing your time to focus on other aspects of your business (for example expanding to related niches with new sites if you are an online publisher).
You save time going back and forth when you engage their services on new projects – because they already know what you like and you understand their limitations as well. So, the two of you focus mostly on how you can leverage your strengths to get things done fast and in the right way at rates both parties are okay with.
If you have a big team, you don’t have to introduce them to the other team members. They already know how they fit in the puzzle and know how to best use their piece (work) to help move the whole puzzle (your company / business) forward.
How clients give repeat work to the same freelancers they hire (how it all starts)
It all starts by figuring what you want – and creating a detailed outline of how that task can be outsourced.
That is really how it all starts.
Because, when you have a detailed outline:
- you will likely have a checklist of the things you want a freelancer to be able to do (minimum requirements) before you can even think about hiring them.
- vetting multiple freelancers becomes much much easier. And in the end when you try to narrow down the list of your candidates to one or two, you will likely pick someone you can work with long term.
- you will likely get back work that meets your expectations. And any time the freelancer doesn’t hit the mark set for them, the revisions that are needed (to make the work meet your standards) will usually be minor.
So, with a detailed outline, the person you hire will be able to deliver to your expectations the first time you work with them that you will want to have them on a second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth or seventh project. And when you work on that many projects you will likely want to work with them on more projects over several weeks or months.
Areas you are gonna want to work with the same freelancers
Development. For example of you are trying to create an app or SaaS business you want the freelancer you start the work with to be there for the long haul. You don’t want someone that will disappear midway. You don’t want someone that will just do the bare minimum and bail when the pressure starts hitting the ceiling.
Content writing. For example, when you are starting a niche site, reviewing products in a specific category, you will normally want to find one or two good writers and stick with them. So, if you find the right person from the onset, and you both like working with each other, the first article will turn to two more, then ten, twenty or 30 plus articles without bringing anyone new onboard.
Outreach, SEO and link building. For example if you want to get 20 or so links per month via outreach, you will mostly pray that the person you outsource the first month’s work to sticks around for two or three or more months. And the reason is simple: starting a link building campaign may be hard at the beginning but once things are moving along at a reasonable pace, getting the links become a bit easier on the person reaching out to the other sites in your niche (or adjacent niches).
As they say, success breeds success. Once they start seeing results from their efforts, all the experience they gather will help them get good at reaching out to other webmasters – and getting you all those good links you yearn for. So, when you hire someone that can deliver, you want to tap on the excitement they get once their efforts start paying off to keep those links rolling in at a much faster rate.
Audio transcription. For example, when you hire someone to transcribe one episode of your podcast, you will want to save time and just work with them on more episodes. If you release a lot of content every week (or even just one episode per week) you will want to avoid the hassle of looking for different transcriptionists every few weeks (podcast episodes).
So, this is also one of those areas where you just want to plan beforehand and do your best to get the right candidate (when you finally decide to place an ad on Niabusiness.com) – someone you can work with on multiple projects.
Virtual assistance is another area where you may want to find someone you can work with for many months. If your business is currently dependent on having you handle small tasks (such as uploading content from writers to your sites, updating your social media accounts, replying to support emails) you can free your time by bringing in a VA that can handle all these tasks for you.
If you create a great outline (for the specific tasks you want them to handle) they will probably be there by your side many months down the road as you work on different projects.
To start your search for someone you can work with on one more project:
- create a detailed outline of what you envision that person doing for you
- create a list of things (behaviours) you won’t tolerate / you will be able to excuse once in awhile
- create a list of the things that will help you determine how you rate a freelancer’s success – things that will help you gauge if they are hitting the milestones you set or not
Then go to Niabusiness Classifieds page to start your search for a contractor to hire.
Check the listings in the different categories listed on the homepage for the right candidate.
Reply to the listings you like.
Wait for the freelancers to reply. Once they message, tell them more about you and the projects you need help with.
If you don’t see a listing that specifically talks about what you need help with, place an ad on the site with details of the job you want to outsource. Placing an ad on Niabusiness is free.